People who failed A levels/didnt go to uni, what steps did you take?

Hi,

I'm in year 13 stressed about exams. I have pretty good offers but I'm worried I wont meet them as my predicted grades have significantly dropped. I've applied for business management and marketing and from a personal standpoint, I don't think its worth going to uni for business unless its a very well ranked uni.

I just wanted some advice from people who have either failed their a levels/didnt go to uni and what their experience was like.

Obviously there's things like clearing and resitting, but I haven't really heard of people doing anything outside of that (apart from doing apprenticeships etc)

I'm asking just so I can have some sort of backup plan in mind.

If you failed your A-levels, what steps did you take next? Where are you in your life now?

Thank you to anyone who shares their experience

Hey! I didn't get the grades I needed to when I applied to university and got rejected from my firm choice. It absolutely sucked at the time not going to lie, but after having a look in Clearing and sitting down with friends and family to think about what I really want, I decided to take a gap year and reapply the year after. I retook some of my A-levels, went travelling, got a job related to the degree I wanted to do and visited friends. In the end I managed to get the grades and ago a year later!
Now I wouldn't do it any other way, as I wouldn't have met the friends I have now or had the life experiences I did. It was a diversion but not the end! I'm now in a good job I enjoy. I have had other friends though that didn't go to uni and they've done exceptionally well by doing internships or apprenticeships, and didn't need the degree! It all depends on your end goal. I also wanted to go to uni for the experience of it so that did push me to reapplying.
I really hope everything goes well for you this summer, how are you planning to revise to help get your grades back up? You can join the Accountability Club we run here on site if you need some motivation!

Hi,
I'm in year 13 stressed about exams. I have pretty good offers but I'm worried I wont meet them as my predicted grades have significantly dropped. I've applied for business management and marketing and from a personal standpoint, I don't think its worth going to uni for business unless its a very well ranked uni.
I just wanted some advice from people who have either failed their a levels/didnt go to uni and what their experience was like.
Obviously there's things like clearing and resitting, but I haven't really heard of people doing anything outside of that (apart from doing apprenticeships etc)
I'm asking just so I can have some sort of backup plan in mind.
If you failed your A-levels, what steps did you take next? Where are you in your life now?
Thank you to anyone who shares their experience

Hi! I took a gap year not necessarily because I had failed my a levels but mostly because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I felt pressured and on results day got into a course through clearing but never went through with it and instead took a gap year and got multiple jobs and saved a lot of money. I also travelled and still was able to keep friendships with people from my sixth form although we were all doing different things. I’m in the final stages of my apprenticeship now and hope to start soon in September!! Remember that everyone has a different path in life and you don’t always have to stick to what everyone else is doing. Everything will work out in the end.

Hi, thank you for your reply!
"I'm in the final stages of my apprenticeship and hope to start soon in September!"
What do you mean by this? Was this an apprenticeship you were able to complete in a year and are you now starting university in September? Sorry this is probably a very obvious answer ahah I'm just interested as I wasn't aware of apprenticeships that last a year. If I'm understanding correctly, what made you decide to go to uni having completed an apprenticeship if you don't mind me asking?
Again, thank you for your reply

Oh I must have wrote it wrong 😂 I meant that the final checks of my apprenticeship are done and I will officially begin my level 6 apprenticeship in September

Ah that makes sense 🙂
You mentioned you weren't sure what you wanted to do which is why you didn't go to uni. How did you figure out what you want to do given that you're doing an apprenticeship now? Did you accidently fall into that career/industry or was it intentional? Thanks

Hi,
I'm in year 13 stressed about exams. I have pretty good offers but I'm worried I wont meet them as my predicted grades have significantly dropped. I've applied for business management and marketing and from a personal standpoint, I don't think its worth going to uni for business unless its a very well ranked uni.
I just wanted some advice from people who have either failed their a levels/didnt go to uni and what their experience was like.
Obviously there's things like clearing and resitting, but I haven't really heard of people doing anything outside of that (apart from doing apprenticeships etc)
I'm asking just so I can have some sort of backup plan in mind.
If you failed your A-levels, what steps did you take next? Where are you in your life now?
Thank you to anyone who shares their experience

I always knew I didn’t want to go through uni and go into debt mainly because I just couldn’t handle it and also because many people say they don’t care about the debt and it’ll get written off but I did care about those aspects. Initially I found out abt apprenticeships too late and everyone had already been filled up. I loved the idea of being able to work and study but the competition was huge so I knew it would be difficult. I spent my time working hard and gaining experience through different jobs and roles anything I could get my hands on in order to have a strong cv and relate to my experience when asked questions about roles I was applying to. I enjoyed working with software which I found out during my gap year when someone I worked with introduced me to games he’d make which is what made me want to get into more tech roles and land an apprenticeship in software development

Hi,
I'm in year 13 stressed about exams. I have pretty good offers but I'm worried I wont meet them as my predicted grades have significantly dropped. I've applied for business management and marketing and from a personal standpoint, I don't think its worth going to uni for business unless its a very well ranked uni.
I just wanted some advice from people who have either failed their a levels/didnt go to uni and what their experience was like.
Obviously there's things like clearing and resitting, but I haven't really heard of people doing anything outside of that (apart from doing apprenticeships etc)
I'm asking just so I can have some sort of backup plan in mind.
If you failed your A-levels, what steps did you take next? Where are you in your life now?
Thank you to anyone who shares their experience

Hi,
I'm in year 13 stressed about exams. I have pretty good offers but I'm worried I wont meet them as my predicted grades have significantly dropped. I've applied for business management and marketing and from a personal standpoint, I don't think its worth going to uni for business unless its a very well ranked uni.
I just wanted some advice from people who have either failed their a levels/didnt go to uni and what their experience was like.
Obviously there's things like clearing and resitting, but I haven't really heard of people doing anything outside of that (apart from doing apprenticeships etc)
I'm asking just so I can have some sort of backup plan in mind.
If you failed your A-levels, what steps did you take next? Where are you in your life now?
Thank you to anyone who shares their experience

Hey!
I achieved straight 7's and above in my GCSEs but I failed my A-Levels in Summer 2023 and when I am telling you I failed, I failed big time. Whoops..
I got a UUE in my subjects consisting of Chemistry, Biology and Law.
Before A-Levels I wanted to do LLB Law at University, however, a few months down the line I realised this wasn't actually something I was passionate in and found a strong interest in Psychology - specifically counselling.
I thought I would never be able to get to University and I genuinely felt like that was it because I screwed up badly.
But I was incredibly wrong.
Despite my A-Level teachers telling me that I would probably spend my life stacking shelves at Tescos, although that wouldn't be so bad right now given the current job market lol.., I managed to pick myself up. I decided retaking my A-Levels would be a bad idea as I had little to no interest in these subjects so retaining concentration would be almost impossible. Instead I completed a HE Course in Humanities & Social Sciences in September 2023.
It was such an awesome course to do, a lot of the qualification criteria were geared towards university preparation (References, academic research, essays on research, ect...) something A-Levels don't really prepare you for. The grading works gradually so you start submitting coursework over the year of the course rather than just primarily focusing on end of year examinations like a-levels.
I under-estimated this course and thought that not many universities would accept me with this qualification. But I re-submitted my UCAS applications again, as I did during sixth form, and I managed to get all 5 offers back with at least 2 Russell group for BSc Psychology.
If going to university is something that you want to do, and your absolutely sure on your interests to the course your intending to apply for, don't let your A-level grades stop you from achieving this.
Also you mentioned that you are unsure if your course would be worth completing at an alternative university and the only thing I can say is I wouldn't be too concerned about this. It's important to apply to a university that has strong links to industry for your specific field of study as this experience is far more valuable than your grades.
If university is something your still thinking about in the meantime, look about and take advantage of this time to explore your options.
Despite starting university at the age of 20, yes that is not old trust me xD, it really does not matter. In fact I think taking a break after A-Levels like gap years or even just full-time work, instead of going straight to university, should be more encouraged.
I hope this helps but yeah honestly I think it was a huge positive for me to just allow myself time to figure out what I am most interested in rather than feeling like I just need to keep up with everyone else.
Now I am doing a BSc Psychology with Counselling degree alongside a CPCAB Level 3 in Counselling and after this perhaps leaping into a MSc in Psychology.
Good luck and if you need advice on those access courses I suggest speaking with your local college provider for those details.